come and see...

tonight i had a prep meeting with a student who will be helping me lead the summer bible study which is really the only sort of program MAC IV has going over the summer. the theme for our study is 'encounters with Jesus' and we are starting off with the first disciples interacting with Jesus as they decide to follow him. the phrase "come and see" comes up twice and seems to be a significant part of discovering who Jesus actually is.
what stood out most to me in our prep, however, was this student agreeing that "coming and seeing" was a big part of his own growth over the last year. there are things about Jesus that really don't make sense until you go and find him for yourself. there are ways that he works that require us to say yes to before we really know what it is we signed on for. and for this student, he is starting to see others come to Jesus in the same way because he has invited them to "come and see."
i hope this trend continues...

back to reality...

so i am now back from city/script and it feels like summer has officially begun. i decided that i needed to take today off after a very intense week at city/script. having to put energy into both teaching and being a staff worker was quite a push but i have arrived at the end a little surprised that i can still walk. most people have pointed out that my ability to speak english has suffered (although i wasn't all too fluent to begin with) but i am sure getting some good sleep over the next week will get that all sorted out.

just to summarize the week, studying scripture = good, experiencing the city = good, Jesus = very good, the food = mostly greasy. i hope to write more about the week after i get a chance to process it for myself as well as do the rounds to catch up with students who were there. the one thing about teaching is that you don't have much time to actually be a staff worker so i feel like i still have a lot to hear from people about what Jesus was/is doing in their hearts.

now that i am back, i decided to start putting the book of Mark into action right away and i have started to explore my new neighbourhood. the weekend before city/script, i moved from west hamilton (close to campus) into hamilton's north end to live with some friends for the summer. the north end is an interesting neighbourhood as it is composed mostly of low income families and is currently under the pressure of being regentrified in response to development of the harbour front. it is truly on 'the other side of the tracks' being north of downtown, which faces problems of its own.

i walked along barton st. which is home to a prison, a hospital, and a shockingly low number of tim hortons (i counted only one between john st. and sherman st. ... i thought this was hamilton?). there are also probably 4 empty store fronts for every full one and an obvious 'ghost town' feel to the whole area. my oma is always telling me stories of back in the day when my opa and her would join friends of theirs to go shopping along barton but it is far from that picture today.

it is a place deemed "unclean," to use Mark terminology, and i am hoping that through the summer i can look deeper to see how Jesus is in there cleaning it up and restoring the people who live here.

look closer...

well we are officially at the half way point in our week at city/script and so far things have been just great. although we are not close to the half way mark in the text, it has been an overwhelming week of seeing Jesus and ourselves in a new way. our study group has been interacting with one another really well and is engaged in the process of observing, interpreting and applying the book of Mark to their lives.
as i have been co-teaching the study this year, i have felt so challenged and incompetent but God is definitely at work among us. i am co-teaching i am trying to process all of it (and hope to write more as i do) but from this point, there is a great deal of mystery in how this is all piecing together.
we are heading out into the city tonight to 'observe' it from a new angle. it has been a very significant event in the past and i am anticipating that it will be again this year. it is amazing how much you just never saw before, both in scripture and in life, that if you just take the time to look you will see for the first time...